Sultry Salsa Dancers & Music Lovers of Chicago & the Suburbs

Today, I went for 3 hour group class of Salsa with instructor Jed Walker. It was a blast -- I have learned so much. 
This is a beginning class, but we learned many turns and moves I would never expect from beginner's level. 

Jed has people rotate, so everyone dances with everyone - what a difference! You learn so much more.
Ladies, one observation -- let the men lead, the dance is so much more beautiful and smooth.

I highly recommend Jed, really good time, absolutely worth the $35 per 3 hours of dancing.

I hope to see you there!


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UIC gymnastic meet



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Movie: Tehran Has No More Pomegranates (Tehran Anar Nadarad!)

"There are about 5 -15 million people living in Teheran. According to official polls 94% are poets!"











It was an unusual, but very valuable movie to me. Not really a documentary, but rather and artistic and romantic story showing the good, the bad and the ugly.

----

35mm. 68 mins. Color/B&W. Farsi With English Subtitles.

Tehran is a large village near the city of Rey, full of gardens and fruit trees.  Its inhabitants live in anthill-like underground holes.  The village’s several districts are constantly at war.  Tehranis’ main occupations are theft and crime, though the king pretends they are subject to him.  They grow excellent fruits, notably an excellent pomegranate, which is found only in Tehran.

- Asar-o-Lblab, 1241 A.D.

Festivals

  • 36th Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Netherlands 
  • 20th International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam IDFA 2007 
  • 51st Cork International Film Festival, Ireland
  • 30th Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil
  • 1001 Istanbul Documentary Film Festival, Turkey 2007 
  • Drake International Film Festival, Italy 2007
  • 13th Boston Festival of films from Iran, USA
  • CINEMA-VERITE International documentary film festival, Iran 2007
  • Cinema East Film Festival, NY, USA 2007
  • Doc Point Helsinki International  Film Festival 2007
  • Ecocinema International Film Festival, Greece 2008
  • Human Rights International Film Festival, Switzerland 2008
  • UCLA Iranian Film Festival, USA 2008
  • Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, Canada 2008
  • Planete Doc Review International Film Festival , Poland 2008
  • "Jeu de pomme" International film festival,France 2007
  • "Well-played" Iran-Arab Film Festival,Germany 2008
  • Full Frame International Documentary Film Festival USA 2008
  • "Flandres" International Film Festival Gent-Belgium 2008
  • 15th Alt?nkoza Film, Culture and Art Festival, Turkey 2008
  • Santiago International Film Festival SANFIC 2008 "Jewels of Middle- East," Chile
  • Morelia International Film Festival 2008, Mexico.
  • San Luis Cine International Festival Competition, Argentina, November 2008
  • Move Media Right Festival. Thailand, December 2008
  • Edinburgh: Filmhouse Cinema, January 2009
  • Portland International Film Festival, Competition, 2009
  • All Roads International Film Festival, USA, Competition, 2009

Awards

  • Winner: Best Director, 11th House of Cinema Film Festival, 2007, Iran;
  • Winner: Best Director, 25th Fajr Int. Film Festival, 2007, Iran;
  • Winner: AVINI Prize for Best Documentary of the year 2007, Iran;
  • Winner: Audience Award, CINEMA VERITE International Documentary Film Festival, 2007 Iran.
  • Nominated for: Cinema Eye Award for Best Documentary Film, IFC 2009


Reviews

A testimony of the agitated life in the Iranian capital colored by subtle irony. Probably the only resource to explain its controversial reality, modernization attempts ,and the incorporation of western values. Tehran has no more Pomegranates is far from the type of film that comes to one’s mind when thinking of Iranian cinema.

Estado de São Paulo


An imaginative and engaging history of Tehran (formerly spelled Teheran), "Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!" uses a petulant, barbed humor to show how the city has undergone a sea change to become the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Young documaker Massoud Bakhshi doesn't make any earth-shaking revelations, instead delivering a steady stream of irony about his drastically transformed society, where even such an apparently harmless topic as change is subject to state censorship. This is a tasty morsel for fests, expatriate Iranians and ands attuned to more experimental doc work.

Mockingly, as though following orders about how the film should be made, Bakhshi continually contrasts the bad old Teheran full of dirty illiterates with the marvelous modern city, while images suggest just the opposite.

Deborah Young, Variety


Considering how often it gets mentioned in the international press these days, Tehran may well have the lowest recognition value of any major city in the Middle East. "Egypt" may be synonymous with pyramids, but reportage from Cairo tends to trot out the Nile, maybe Tahrir Square, as visual filler. Now, armchair tourists can fall back on 'Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!' a profane portrait of the Iranian capital by writer-director and Tehran native Massoud Bakhshi.

The film is oddly successful on two, apparently mutual-exclusive, and fronts. On one hand it's an intimate representation of an idiosyncratic city. On the other, it captures strains of Tehran that will echo in the experiences of urbanites the world over, making this parochial film a good barometer of 21st-century urbanism.

Jim Quilty, Daily Star


Tehran Has No More Pomegranates
 by Massoud Bakhshi is a special and refreshing documentary. Not a real story, or an upgraded report, but a cleverly constructed portrait of a city.

Bakhshi made a smart movie which is dramatic and funny at the same time, which contains a healthy dose of mockery without being cynical and which is on top of that imaginative and informative.

Marrigje de Bok, Power off culture


The filmmaker, Massoud Bakhshi, reviews several centuries of the history of the Iranian capital Tehran from various economic, social, cultural, political, environmental, and architectural perspectives with an irony in terms of words, action and situations. The film is full of fresh ideas. It has taken the director six years to make and it is based on the activities of the film crew to collect evidence and documents to make a film.

Mehrzad Danesh, Film International



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Log SQL statements for Hibernate

if you ever want to see the actual SQL that any hibernate call makes you can add the following line to your log4j file

log4j.logger.org.hibernate.SQL=DEBUG, console


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Naming a for loop in java

for(int i = 0; i<10; i++)
{
loopName: for(Organization org: organizations)
{
if(org.getId() .equals( new Long("5")))
break loopName;
}
//do other stuff

}


http://www.informit.com/library/content.aspx?b=STY_Java2_24hours&seqNum=96


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MYSQL: Restoring DB from .sql backup

To restore a mysql database from Unix shell

mysql -u my_user_name -p db_name < my_sql_file.sql



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Sunrise

I am a burning sun,
I am the ocean's depth,

Come to the shore at the sunrise,
and feel but just a few rays on your face,
just a single wave spray drop..

You will understand without words.

I am not perfect,
I will burn you if you stay until noon,
I will drown you if you swim too far.

But I am the Love,
come in the morning,
look at the first rays
and pray.

Fear not, I will caress you gently
when you immerse in me.
I will warm you,
if you allow.

Close your eyes just after the sunset,
in meditative warmth and longing
for the next sunrise.

I am not perfect,
I am often clouded,
I often storm.

But come! Oh, child
after the storm
and you will find the most beautiful ambers,
and you will find shells 

that will whisper  into your ear

about my love -- forever.



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Show no fear

All people are individual, unique, and no one likes generalizations.
Sometimes however it helps to draw a parallel to nature to understand
our own behavior.
The facts I am writing about are common knowledge, yet people hardly
ever remember to follow them.

If we were to think about our social interactions, in nature the
closest would a troop of baboons, but since hardly anybody knows about
them, I will explain on the example of a pack of wolves.

The wolves live in groups of up to 15, occasionally more, likewise the
optimal proven social grouping for humans is about 30. Much less than
30 of friends, coworkers, neighbors and relatives and we feel lonely,
more than that and we get overwhelmed. We have to learn how to find
ourselves in that group to be happy.

The pack of wolves has always an alpha male or female, and a strong
hierarchy of the order. Similarly, every group a people instinctively
chooses a leader -- always! Usually, the choice falls to the oldest,
mentally strongest and the most experienced member of the group, but
not always, I proved that a million times. The leadership is NOT a
wait-until-I-get-old game, nor respect me because I am a senior deal.
It is a learned art.

What most of the people do NOT realize is that we are not talking only
about CEOs of the companies, but about ANY interaction of people, at
ANY time, be it water cooler conversation, a business meeting, or a
family gathering.

People constantly, just like wolves, assess their standing in the
society and act accordingly. If a person feels inferior, weak, sick,
fearful - he, or she automatically lands on the bottom of the food
chain. In the nature this individual may be pushed aside, eat last, or
have a throat sliced. I human society that person will be ignored, or
ridiculed.

Most of us are compassionate, to some extend, but think about times
when we hear a speaker that is weak, unsure -- we naturally deny that
person the leadership.

So, if I was to sum up. If you meet with a group of 4 people: you will
always be either a leader, number two, three, or four. Most of the
time it is YOUR choice.

How to be a leader? Books have been written, but this are a few
pointers I try to remember:
- nobody can intimidate me, nobody!
- I am not afraid of people opinions, I do what I believe in, always!
- I help people solve THEIR problems, show compassion -- forget all
that and you are just a jerk
- I remember that I am hardly ever the best in the crowd in the area
of expertise, I direct other's talents like it was an orchestra, I
don't have to play the violin to get standing ovations
- be sincere, people will know if you are not

Again, have any fear of what the others would think of you and people
will SMELL it -- and they will go for your throat!

You can see it over and over again: people do a "thing" in fear and
they get punished, others do the same thing with a chin up and
conviction and they become heroes, the songs are sung about them.

Chin up! No fear!

Exception: when only two people meet that are closly related we often
open up and show our weaknesses. This is what makes relationship
beautiful! With my friends, or daughter I don't have to compete. It is
a safety valve that let's us unload our pains and tensions.



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NoSuchBeanDefinitionException

It is common to get similar error:
org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No bean named 'photoUserTag' is defined
The solution is:
Verify that bean name matches with the bean definition.  



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"Children running" interpretation of Rumi



I used to be shy,
and You made me sing.

I used to refuse to eat,
now, I call for more wine.

I used to sit in somber dignity,
on my mat and pray.

Now, children run around
and make funny faces at me.

---------------

Rumi was a Muslim spiritual leader and this poem may raise some eyebrows;
alcohol is forbidden and prayer is utmost respected,
yet Rumi as a Sufi mystic is trying to make another point from a simple decadence.

His understanding of God's omnipresence transcends convention.
He understands and sees God everywhere, in love, in happiness and especially in children faces.
He does not limit God to self-restraint, fasting and the prayers.


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"A Candle About To Burn Out" interpretation of Rumi



When candle becomes one with the flame,

at that very moment before its own annihilation

it casts no shadow.

It becomes nothing,
but a tongue of light.

Look at this stub
as is about to finish
as someone who is finally safe
from all virtues and vices of life
-- the pride and the shame
which were born of these.


----------------

Rumi, the 12th century Sufi mystic is showing us the main concept of
oneness with God in Islam (tawhid) -- when the person finds herself at
total peace and love, where there is no pride and shame, where there
is no duality or confusion.


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legends



leave comforts -- delusion of being rich

go far to travel, live life as pilgrimage




see beauty of mountains, sit in a cave

in which Adam lived, where Eva her apple gave




visit old kings' palaces, now crumbling into dust,

let the wind tell you a story which meaning you might grasp




listen, Uki to these ancient halls

old legends are written on their walls




these ancient legends tell you a beautiful story,

about the true love, about the brave, and their glory




in the courtyard with a statue of real beauty,

a goddess maybe, a perfect woman and a real cutie




millennia have passed, my princess, since you walked this flower alley

since my lips last touched yours, alive, in the paradise valley




we sung the songs in which eternal love we were swearing

today, your memory is dying, the statue to your beauty's weathering




the desert will soon swallow you into oblivion and you'll be gone,

I am the wind, immortal, to search endlessly this empty home




people will come and wonder about the old statues: Who was who?

I'd give my life for just one more year with you.


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HTML IMAGE MAP AREA

 



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Konrad



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Poem by Rumi for February 2



This is no ordinary friendship.

I attend your banquet as wine attends.




Like lightning, I am expert at dying.

Like lightning, this beauty has no language.




It makes no difference

whether I win or lose.




You sit with us in congregation of the dead,

where one handful of dirt says,

I was once a head of hair.




Another, I was a backbone.

YOU SAY NOTHING.




Love comes in, I can deliver you

from yourself in this moment.




Now lover and beloved grow quiet.

My mouth is burning with sweetness.




Rumi (Book: A year with Rumi - February 2)


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Location by IP address

http://www.find-ip-address.org/


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Location by Zip code

http://www.phpfever.com/soap-zip-code-web-service.html


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How to show or hide hidden files in macOS Finder?

You can show hidden files by pressing together SHIF + COMMAND + "."



To display hidden files in your Mac that start with ".fileName":
- Open Terminal
- Execute

  • defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
  • killall Finder

To hide hidden files in your Mac that start with ".fileName":
- Open Terminal
- Execute:

  • defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
  • killall Finder


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Book: Pan Wołodyjowski ("Colonel Wołodyjowski" )

One of the books, that every Polish person have read, or watched as a movie, is "Pan Wołodyjowski".
I have read it few times, my father practically memorized this large book trilogy.

In it, one of the last scenes is when the heros knights of the 17th century defend the castle that is overrun by the enemy. Before the battle they swear before the God and their own people that they will defend it to the end of their lives and never let it fall into enemy hands. In the turn of the events the king of Poland signs the treaty with the enemy that many consider an act of the traitor and the battle ends. All the soldiers leave the castle in front of the enemy army, but the two knights stay behind and when the castle is empty, they set the ammunition storage on fire and blow themselves together with the castle. 

During funeral of the two fallen officers the new king (who later conquered Ottoman Empire in Vienna) and the Polish knights say their goodbyes: 

"In name of God, Sir Wołodyjowski, ... they already play alarm, to war! The enemy is in the borders! And you are not getting up? You won't lift your sword? Won't get on your horse? What happened to you dear soldier? Can't you remember your ancestral values? Sir Wołodyjowski, why are you leaving us in tears and fear?"

Sometimes we choose go for slaughter to the battles that others already considered lost -- we do that, or loose dear values, our souls. We pray to God to find the strength in our hearts, the compassion, the forgiveness, and maybe to be able to walk out with the head high.
Trilogy:
- "Potop" ("The Deluge") 
- "Ogniem i Mieczem" ("With Fire and Sword")
- Pan Wołodyjowski ("Colonel Wołodyjowski" )





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RSS Syntax

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<rss version="2.0">

<channel>
<title> <!---Channel Title---> </title>
<link> <!---Channel's Link---> </link>
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<link> <!---Item Link 2---> </link>
<description> <!---Brief Description 2---> </description>
</item>

</channel>

</rss>


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A dream within a dream - E. A. Poe



[...]

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of golden sand-

How few! Yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep, while I weep!

O God! Can not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seen

But a dream within a dream?

E. A. Poe


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SQL: joint statment on 3 different tables

select distinct u.email from user u join season_roster sr on u.id=sr.user_id join team t on t.id=sr.team_id where t.league_id in (3, 13) and u.email like '%@%'  and u.email not like '%test.com';


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Chinese New Year - photos

I posted some pictures from China Town parade today (Chinese New Year).





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faith - a full circle around



It is interesting how Karma (or Faith) works its magic, I am at the same point where I was in FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2002

The full cycle elapsed since then. I might know more now, maybe I am a different man, but the same kind of thoughts were in my mind back then.


I wrote back then...
"So far if I was to follow any of the fore-mentioned faiths, I would choose to become a Muslim mystic, a Sufi. Open-minded, yet spiritual, full of love of God and people."

"It's not always a blind man 
who falls into a pit. 
Sometimes it's one who can see.
A holy one does sometimes fall,
but by that tribulation, he or she ascends,
escapes many illusions, escapes
conventional religion, escapes
being so bound to phenomena."

     by Rumi (Sufi mystic and a poet, sometime around year 1220 AD)


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My favorite quotations..


“A man should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”  by Robert A. Heinlein

"We are but habits and memories we chose to carry along." ~ Uki D. Lucas


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